Sabbath-School Lesson Notes
By A. T. Robinson
God, the great King, above all other kings, had chosen the nation of Israel to be his own peculiar people in this world, to represent the principles of his government and his character in the midst of the wicked nations of earth, which were ruled by the prince of darkness. Here amid the great sea of moral darkness, God had set the nation of Israel as a lighthouse, pointing the way to the only true God. Israel's failure was in refusing to hearken to the voice of God. “Oh, that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!” the Lord says concerning that people, after they had mocked his messengers and misused his prophets, until “the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy.” Then the only means left to bring that people back to the Lord was to send them down to Babylon, and let affliction do its scourging work upon them. But the Lord did not utterly cast off that people, even when they formally rejected him from being their king. After the Babylonian captivity that people were still given a period of four hundred and ninety years in which to learn the lesson which their captivity was designed to teach them. Their rejection of the Son of God, and his crucifixion, at their demand, filled up the cup of that nation's wrong-doing. The Lord then pronounced desolate the earthly house in which he had chosen to establish the symbol of his government in this world. While professing to believe the prophets, they slew the One who sent the prophets, whom their fathers had slain. They did even worse than their fathers had done, and thus they took upon themselves all the guilt that had been accumulating down to their own time. Matt. 23:31, 32, 35, 36. Their refusal to hearken to the voice of God, through his prophets, was responsible for that sad fact. So, when Israel today reject the word of the Lord, in the warnings and instruction that come through his chosen messenger, they do not know to what lengths they will go in opposition to God. It led Israel then to reject the Son of God in person. It will lead Israel now to reject him in the person of his remnant followers, and in the message of salvation for this time. God is still warning men against the rejection of the King of kings, of the only way wherein salvation lies. Individuals now who take the same course that22Israel took will go down to everlasting destruction. There is no safety or hope in allegiance to any other than Israel's true and only King—no safety outside his ways.